Actually Cipro isn't needed. From what I understand anthrax is also very responsive to 2 or three common antibiotics, like ampicillin and tetracycline. To quote from a recent letter to the editor in the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48079-2001Oct24.html):
-- For reasons that are not clear, public health authorities have been recommending Cipro to treat those exposed to anthrax. Cipro is not a powerful antibiotic but a broad-spectrum antibiotic that kills a variety of bacteria. In some settings, the ability to kill a variety of bacteria with a single antibiotic is desirable, but it is of no advantage in treating those exposed to anthrax. In addition, it costs more than $400 per treatment course and has limited availability. Additionally, it has more side effects than narrower spectrum antibiotics and has the potential to make a variety of bacteria antibiotic resistant. The strain of anthrax being used by the bioterrorists is sensitive to penicillin, ampicillin, tetracycline, erythromycin and didoxacillin, among others. All these antibiotics are widely available and cost less than $15 per treatment course. They also have far fewer side effects, and they make fewer bacteria antibiotic resistant. If it is desirable to increase the killing power of these antibiotics, they can be used in combination. For example, ampicillin attacks the bacterial cell wall, while tetracycline attacks the bacterial ribosomes. Together their power to kill anthrax is vastly increased over that of Cipro alone. The cost of a combined treatment course with these two antibiotics is less than $30 -- less than 10 percent of a treatment course with Cipro. Obviously, given time the bioterrorists can make strains of anthrax that are resistant to currently available antibiotics. Therefore, we must act quickly and decisively to destroy any terrorist laboratory facilities capable of making biological weapons of mass destruction. MARK R. GEIER President The Genetic Centers of America Silver Spring DAVID A. GEIER President MedCon Inc. Silver Spring -- So why get stiffed by a multinational drug company that charges about $400 for a 10 day supply. Moreover its far easier obtaining ampicillin and tetracycline right now. regards, larry -- Larry C. Lyons ColdFusion/Web Developer EBStor.com 8870 Rixlew Lane, Suite 204 Manassas, Virginia 20109-3795 tel: (703) 393-7930 fax: (703) 393-2659 Web: http://www.ebstor.com http://www.pacel.com email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chaos, panic, and disorder - my work here is done. -- > -----Original Message----- > From: Todd [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Friday, October 26, 2001 11:37 AM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Re: Anthrax scare (Was beauuuuutiful Friday) > > > > ... and ask him to put you on a course of Cipro or similar drug. > > I would really advise against this. Taking antibiotics for > no reason is a > very bad idea. For one thing, it kills off the good bacteria > that live in > your body and for another, just like people can build up a > resitance to > virii/bacteria, bacteria can and do build up a resistance to > antibiotics. > If people go nuts and start pumping themselves full of > antibiotics for no > good reason, then we might end up with a mutant strain of > something that we > can't treat at all. > > > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
